The tanker "Mercury," with a crew of 19 people, lost power in the Pacific Ocean due to a main engine failure. The incident occurred 50 km northeast of the island of Simushir, part of the Kuril Islands chain, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Sakhalin Region. The vessel sent a distress signal to the Marine Rescue Subcenter in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the evening of December 17. A rescue vessel, "Rubin," was dispatched to tow the tanker to port.
Earlier, on the night of December 16-17, the tanker "Volgoneft 109" sent a distress signal while in the vicinity of the port of Kavkaz, carrying 4,000 tons of fuel oil. The ship's captain reported a breach in the seal of the fourth cargo tank, causing fuel oil to leak into the ballast tank. However, the ship's hull integrity remained intact, and no oil leaked into the water. There were 14 crew members on board.
On December 15, two tankers, "Volgoneft 212" and "Volgoneft 239," sank in the Kerch Strait. One person died, and 11 were hospitalized in serious condition. Preliminary reports indicate that over 4,200 cubic meters of oil products may have entered the sea (the two vessels were carrying more than 9,000 cubic meters in total). As a result, dozens of kilometers of coastline in the Krasnodar region were covered in fuel oil. Emergency measures were introduced at the municipal level in the Temryuk and Anapa districts.
Greenpeace has warned that the accident could become one of the largest environmental disasters in the Black Sea, with serious consequences for the local flora and fauna.
